


Blueberries Past Midnight

by Maiden_of_Asgard



Category: Loki - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), F/M, Fluff, Medication, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, POV Loki (Marvel), Post-Canon, Unnamed female character - Freeform, loki's library, midnight cravings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 20:18:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19258462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiden_of_Asgard/pseuds/Maiden_of_Asgard
Summary: Loki is beginning to get used to the idea of having a mortal along with him on his treasure-hunts, but when she’s injured and delirious, he begins to wonder if she might be more trouble than she’s worth.





	Blueberries Past Midnight

“Loki,” she howls from the next room over, and for the twentieth time that night, Loki sighs, puts his book aside, and makes the short - but no less bothersome - trek to the door that separates his hotel room from the one that adjoins it. For a moment or two, he simply stands there and waits with bated breath, hoping that this latest source of his annoyance has fallen asleep.

“LOKI!”

He surrenders, but is instantly thwarted by the lock on the door handle; this irritates him even more, so he snaps the thing off and tosses it into the bin by the desk. It isn’t as if  _ he’s _ the one paying for these rooms, after all.

The girl in the bed, Loki has decided, is an absolute menace. She’s pretty enough to catch his eye, clever enough to engage his interest, and  _ just _ frail enough to get herself grievously injured during the relic-collecting trips around the Nine Realms that Tony Stark has begun to fund - covertly, of course.

_ “We’re not gonna let anything like Thanos happen ever again,”  _ Stark had said in the beginning, and for once, he and Loki are in perfect agreement. The trouble is, covertly obtaining powerful, dangerous relics is much more of a job than Loki had ever been expecting. True, he does have a shocking amount of freedom, as far as his methods are concerned, and yes, he  _ is _ paid handsomely for his services… but then there is the girl.

The girl is a problem.

“What is it?” Loki snaps, lingering like some sort of vengeful spirit in the shadows. He can’t begin to figure out how she’s managed to get the door locked; she looks like she’d barely moved since he last checked on her. 

She blinks up at him, her eyes glassy and slightly unfocused. “I think that I’m floating,” she replies matter-of-factly, and Loki suppresses a groan. “Am I floating?”

“No.”

He’s beginning to think that he should’ve called one of the other mortals to double-check the dosage of pain medication required for a woman of her size; it seems that he might’ve overestimated just a bit. But, that would require admitting that their attempt to snatch up the Andvaranaut from the river beneath the World Tree hadn’t gone  _ quite _ as planned, and it’s a conversation that he’d really prefer to save for another day.

If he wasn’t so captivated by her, Loki muses, his life would be much simpler. He might’ve left her behind and saved the ring; Norns only know where it is now, and it will likely take a great deal of effort to locate it again. If he wasn’t so captivated by her, he might not feel guilt at the fact that she’s managed to injure herself while under his care, sparing him all of the aggravation of fussing over her this way.

He’s beginning to believe that he isn’t a particularly lucky sort of man.

“Loki?”

Sighing, he moves closer to her side. The bandages on her arms and head make him wince in sympathy, and he is appalled to be so greatly affected. “If you need something, tell me.”

His tone makes her pout.

He is learning - and learning quickly - that he cannot ignore her pretty lips when she pouts. 

“I did not mean to snap,” he says, his voice a bit more measured, “but it is two o’clock in the morning, mortal, and I am very tired.”

Her eyes widen, almost comically so, and she shrinks under the covers until only they are visible. “Sorry, Loki,” she whispers.

Loki is willing to be generous. After all, she  _ did _ apologize. And she looks so contrite, so helpless… “That is alright,” he begins, but she pulls the covers down to her chin and makes a sound that he’d most likely describe as a whine.

_ “Food.” _

“What?”

“I’m hungry,” she says. “So hungry. I don’t wanna starve, Loki.” There’s the pout again. “You’re gonna let me starve, just ‘cause I said your horns are stupid—”

Loki’s lip twitches. “I don’t recall hearing you say that my horns are stupid.”

“Well, they  _ are,” _ she insists, sitting up in the bed, and Loki has to catch her before she topples over to the side. “But you’re  _ still _ hot.” She sounds like this is some sort of grave personal offense, but then she bursts into giggles. “Stupid hot horny god.”

He decides that she can’t possibly be all that hungry, if she’s giggling over his helmet, and so he gently presses her back onto her pillows. “Get some rest,” he says.

“But  _ Loki, _ I’m  _ hungry.” _

“Well, what do you want, then?” His patience is all but gone, at this point, and his head is pounding; he hasn’t slept in some time, and it’s beginning to catch up to him. 

“Blueberry milk.”

Loki waits for the words to arrange themselves into something sensible in his brain, and when they don’t, he worries for a moment that the Allspeak is failing him. “I’m sorry?”

“Blueberry,” she says carefully, “milk.”

He’s baffled. “And how does one milk a blueberry?”

“That’s your problem,” she declares, and then she rolls over on her side and falls asleep so quickly that he checks her pulse to make sure she’s still alive. He tucks her in carefully - more carefully than he ever would if she was awake to see him - and then returns to his room and his book. Hopefully, with his little companion settled in for the night, he’ll be able to get some peace.

Not half an hour passes before she begins to call his name again, and for a split second, Loki considers soundproofing the door and leaving her to her fate. Instead, he trudges back to her bedside. There are tears in her eyes, and he doesn’t like that. Her tears make him uncomfortable, and Loki doesn’t appreciate any mortal from Midgard having the ability to make him uncomfortable.

“It hurts, Loki.”

“I am sorry,” he tells her, and he means it. He’d attempt to heal her further with his magic, if he wasn’t entirely spent - he’s surprised he even managed to get them back to Midgard at all, after everything fell apart so disastrously on their quest. Knitting her bones back together had been difficult enough...

“Drugs?” She sounds ridiculously hopeful. 

“No more drugs. You’ve had too much, already. I don’t want to kill you.”

“Oh.” A few moments pass, and she peers up at him suspiciously from the bed, her brow furrowing. “Where’s the blueberry milk?”

“I… there isn’t any.”

“What?”

_ Norns,  _ he thinks,  _ she sounds as if I’ve just told her that I murdered her family. _ “That doesn’t exist,” he says. He pats her head awkwardly, hoping that it might lull her back to sleep and put an end to her ridiculous requests.

“It does. Everything exists.  _ Everything.” _

“I suppose—”

“You exist. I exist. Right?”

“Well—”

“Then blueberry milk is  _ real. _ I want some.”

He opens his mouth to argue, then bites his tongue; there’s no point. “I’ll get you some,” he promises, cursing himself as soon as the words leave his lips.

(But maybe, he decides, the look of delight in her eyes makes it worth it).

Loki leaves her in her room. He considers calling one of the other mortals - Darcy Lewis, perhaps - to ask for clarification, but decides against it. This isn’t a story that he wants to spread around Stark Tower. Instead, he pulls out the cell phone that he hardly ever bothers to use. He’s irritated, yet also slightly vindicated, to discover that this ‘blueberry milk’ isn’t some common item on Midgard that he was simply ignorant of, but he also finds recipes to make it, and he  _ did _ promise…

He finds himself at a very unpleasant, brightly-lit store at three o’clock in the morning. It doesn’t take him long to gather ingredients, but he worries that she’ll manage to fall out of bed and break her neck, all the same. 

_ Sugar. Milk. Blueberries. _ He even purchases a blender, because his hotel room certainly doesn’t have one. He makes the mortal her precious blueberry milk as quickly as he can, rushing into her room with a massive cup of the stuff. It tastes fine, he supposes, but the color is extremely off-putting.

“Here,” he tells her, feeling strangely proud of his creation.

She takes one sip, and her face scrunches in confusion. “Oh!” Her eyes widen, and she beams up at him, positively radiant. “I meant  _ yogurt.” _

Loki thinks he might cry.

“Blueberry yogurt.”

He decides that the next time she falls into a river, he’s leaving her. This is too much to bear.

“This’s better, though,” she continues, and he watches in slight amazement as she chugs the entire glass. Once it’s emptied, she shoves it into his hand, a satisfied, sleepy smile on her lips - and a blue-ish milk moustache right above her mouth. “Thank you, Loki.”

“You’re welcome.” He wipes the milk away with his thumb, valiantly attempting to ignore the smooth softness of her skin. 

“I won’t die now,” she says.

He feels a smile beginning to form, but he doesn’t understand why. “No,” he agrees, “you won’t.”

“You’re magic.”

He does laugh, then. “I am.”

“Loki?” One of her eyes cracks open, and she sounds suddenly solemn. “You aren’t gonna leave me next time, are you?”

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Loki feels ashamed that he’s even considered it. She might only be human, but she’s his…  _ something. _ His human, he supposes. He’s becoming more and more unsure of how he should think of her. “No,” he reassures her, allowing his thumb to trace over her lip one final time before he leaves her to sleep. “No, I’ll never leave you behind.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the following prompt by Latent-Thoughts for the Loki's Library fic collection: "(SFW) Loki’s Medicine - Reader/OC is high on pain meds after a medical procedure and demands some kinda exotic food at around midnight. Loki tries his best to handle her."
> 
> <3


End file.
